I love Yiddish music!

This is the first Yiddish song I ever understood while it was being sung - by Chava Alberstein, at KlezKamp. The text is by Binem Heller, the music by Alberstein herself. First it gave me goosebumps and then I cried and cried.

You can hear it on the cd called The Well which Chava made with the Klezmatics.

Bob Vasile and I (the Pratie Heads) recorded it in 2006, our version is below.

Alberstein introduced the song that night by telling us that Heller, a prize-winning poet living in Israel, was often asked by the media: "why do you bother writing in Yiddish, a dead language?"

This poem was his explanation: Khaye, his sister, who had taken care of him and his brothers when they were young, and who had died in Treblinka, had never known any other language -- he wrote in Yiddish for her and hoped that somewhere, she was listening.

Binem himself died in 1998, and so the last living memories of Khaye were extinguished. However, she's become extremely famous through this song...

Mayn Shvester Khaye (My Sister Khaye)

My sister Khaye, her eyes were green
My sister Khaye, her braids were black
Sister Khaye, it was she who raised me
In the house on Smotshe Street with tumble down steps.

Mother left the house at dawn
When there was hardly light in the sky.
She went off to the shop, to earn
A wretched penny's worth of change.

And Khaye stayed with the boys,
She fed them and watched over them.
And at night, when little kids get tired,
She'd sing them pretty songs.

My sister Khaye, her eyes were green
My sister Khaye, her hair was long
Sister Khaye, it was she who raised me
She wasn't even ten years old.

She cleaned and cooked and served the food,
She washed our little heads
All she forgot was to play with us
Sister Khaye, her braids were black.

My sister Khaye with her eyes of green
Was burnt by a German in Treblinka.
And I am, in the Jewish world,
The very last one who ever knew her.

It's for her that I write my poems in Yiddish
In these terrible days of our times.
To God Himself she's an only daughter,
She sits in heaven at His right hand.

Rent the movie "Mamele" and see Molly, at the age of 40, playing a teenager taking care of a big, unruly, ungrateful family after the mother has passed away. From the American Jewish Historical Society: Small in stature but larger than life, Molly Picon commanded a global audience. Born to immigrant parents in New York, Picon spoke English from childhood, yet she rose to fame performing in Yiddish for audiences from Argentina to Zagreb. She entertained American troops in Korea and played to Jewish survivors in post-Holocaust Warsaw. She dressed as a yeshiva boy to play Yidl and an old woman to play Yente and in doing so won the hearts of audiences even if they did not speak Yiddish.

A combination showstopper and public servant, character actress and superstar, Molly Picon embodied the spirit of Yiddish theater and culture for the 20th century.

Vi azoy lebt der keyser?

Rabosay, rabosay, khakhomim on a breg,
Kh'vel aykh fregn, kh'vel aykh fregn,
- Nu, freg zshe, freg zhe, freg,
Entfert ale oyf mayn shayle:
Vi azoy trinkt der keyser tey?

Me nemt a hitele tsuker,
Un me makht in dem a lekhele,
Un me gist arayn heyse vaser,
Un me misht, un me misht ...
Oy, ot azoy, oy, ot azoy,
Ot azoy trinkt der keyser tey!

Rabosay, rabosay, khakhomim on a breg
Kh'vel aykh fregn, kh'vel aykh fregn.
- Nu, freg zhe, freg zhe, freg.
Entfert ale oyf mayn shayle:
Vi azoy est der keyser bulbes?

Me nemt a fesele puter
Un me shtelt avek dem keyser oyf der anderer zayt,
Un a rote soldatn, mit harmatn,
Shisn di bulbes durkh der puter
Dem keyser glaykh in moyl arayn ...
Oy, ot azoy, oy, ot azoy,
Ot azoy est der keyser bulbes!

Rabosay, rabosay, khakhomim on a breg,
Kh'vel aykh fregn, kh'vel aykh fregn.
- Nu, freg zhe, freg zhe, freg.
Entfert ale oyf mayn shayle:
Vi azoy shloft der keyser bay nakht?

Me shit on a fuln kheyder mit federn,
Un me khmalet ahin arayn dem keyser,
Un dray polk soldatn
Shteyen a gantse nakht un shrayen:
Sha! Sha! Sha!
Oy, ot azoy, oy, ot azoy,
Ot azoy shloft der keyser bay nakht!

Gentlemen, gentlemen, endlessly wise,
I want to ask you a question.
- Nu, ask, ask, ask:
Everybody answer my question:
How does Csar drink tea?

You take a cylinder of sugar,
And carve a hole on the top,
And into it you pour hot water
And then stir and stir.
Oy, just like that, oy, just like that,
That's how the Csar drinks tea.

Gentlemen, gentlemen, endlessly wise,
I want to ask you a question.
- Nu, ask, ask, ask:
Everybody answer my question:
How does the Csar eat potatoes?

You take a barrel of butter
And you place it opposite the Csar
And a company of soldiers, with cannons,
Shoot the potatoes through the butter
Straight into the Csar's mouth.
Oy, just like that, oy, just like that,
That's how the Csar eats potatoes.

Gentlemen, gentlemenn, endlessly wise,
I want to ask you a question.
- Nu, ask, ask, ask:
Everybody answer my question:
How does the Csar sleep at night?

You fill a room with feathers
And you wham the Csar in,
And three regiments of soldiers
Stand all night and shout:
Shah! Shah! Shah!
Oy, just like that, oy, just like that,
That's how the Csar sleeps at night.

I have known Sheva since the mid-1980s when I started singing for the annual Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance) memorial services in Durham, NC. Every year she and her committee choose a theme in keeping with the speakers, who are holocaust survivors. Then she chooses some songs that go with the theme. I sing some of them solo and some I arrange for the Triangle Jewish Chorale to sing at the service. There've been scores of songs over the years.

Also, Sheva asked me to sing the songs on her second set of cds, the set that accompanies her second text book. That was lots of fun!

This lens is part of Chapel Hill Fiddler's Jewish Lenses CollectionBest Jewish Books • Best Jewish Lenses • Mystery band from the Ukraine • Chai Lifeline helps sick Jewish kids • Hamsa: beautiful good-luck charm from Israel • TJC Hanukah Songbook • When does Chanukah begin in 2009? • How do you spell Hanukkah? • Jewish choral music songbook • I love Yiddish music! • The Jewish Storyteller • Jewish Wedding Music • Mani Leib, famous Yiddish poet-shoemaker • Purim Puppets of Michel Nedjar • A Sephardic song about eggplants • Uncle Shlomo's Pushcart • I love Yiddish!